Toronto, Ontario — Fiat Chrysler executive Reid Bigland has announced he will be leaving the company effective April 3.
Bigland serves as FCA’s U.S. sales chief, head of the Ram brand and chairman president and CEO of FCA Canada. David Buckingham, COO of FCA Canada, will assume the leadership duties for the company’s Canadian operations.
“It has been a privilege to have been part of the FCA family and to have worked alongside our dealer business partners,” said Bigland in a statement.
Bigland’s duties will be split among Buckingham and two other FCA executives: Jeff Kommor, vice president of sales and fleet operations, will become head of U.S. sales; and Mike Koval, director of Ram’s U.S. product marketing, will be interim head of the Ram brand in North America.
In 2019, Bigland claimed that FCA retaliated against him for aiding a U.S. investigation into sales-reporting practices. A whistleblower complaint portrayed Bigland as a scapegoat for sales practices that were changed in July 2016, when the company admitted that a 75-month streak of year-over-year gains had actually ended three years earlier in 2013.
According to Deborah Gordon, Bigland’s attorney, the two sides came to an amicable resolution at the beginning of the year. She could not share other details.
Last year, FCA agreed to pay US$40 million as part of a legal settlement with the SEC over the fraudulent sales reports.
Bigland also accused the automaker of withholding 90 percent of his pay after he cooperated with federal investigators. The suit was filed on May 24 and moved to federal court in early June.
The lawsuit was withdrawn in October for technical reasons. Bigland’s attorney said they would refile in December but never did.
Bigland took charge of U.S. sales a little more than a year into the infamous streak that started in April 2010. He energized dealers who were struggling in the aftermath of Chrysler’s 2009 bankruptcy and helped them lure more customers with big discounts, offering large bonuses to stores that hit their targets.
